Accused of plucking Plurk, Microsoft pulls microblog service

After Plurk showed some disturbing (like 80 percent) overlaps between its code …

Canadian startup Plurk, a Twitter-like social networking site that has gotten quite popular in China, accused Microsoft China of not only stealing the service's design, but 80 percent of the service's code too. In response, Microsoft has pulled its microblogging site, which goes by the name of Juku and was developed by a third-party vendor for the company's MSN China joint venture. Redmond has also started working with the joint venture to thoroughly investigate the charges, and so far has "acknowledged that a portion of the code they provided was indeed copied. This was in clear violation of the vendor’s contract with the MSN China joint venture, and equally inconsistent with Microsoft’s policies respecting intellectual property."

The whole story begins with a Plurk blog post explaining that the team could not believe Microsoft's blatant theft. "We were first tipped off by high-profile bloggers and Taiwanese users of our community that Microsoft had just launched a new Chinese microblogging service that looked eerily similar to Plurk. Needless to say we were absolutely shocked and outraged when we first saw with our own eyes the cosmetic similarities Microsoft's new offering had with Plurk. From the filter tabs, emoticons, qualifier/verb placement, Karma scoring system, media support, new user walkthroughs to pretty much everything else that gives Plurk its trademark appeal, Microsoft China's offering ripped off our service."

Plurk did code comparisons to come up with the 80 percent figure, but sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words:

Comparison shot: Microsoft's MSN Juku is on the top, Plurk is on the bottom Plurk

Plurk is unsure of its next step. "We're not entirely sure but we are exploring our options. We have been seeking advice from respected colleagues, responding to press inquiries and gathering facts on the timeline of events and parties involved here to understand why and how this took place."

Microsoft also seemed unsure of what happened, but promised to investigate while taking the service offline for the time being. "Because questions have been raised about the code base comprising the service, MSN China will be suspending access to the Juku beta feature temporarily," the company said in a statement.

After investigating, the software giant has concluded that it is to blame. "We will be suspending access to the Juku beta indefinitely. We are obviously very disappointed, but we assume responsibility for this situation. We apologize to Plurk and we will be reaching out to them directly to explain what happened and the steps we have taken to resolve the situation."

The debacle with Juku is an indication that the software giant needs to either stop outsourcing its various small projects (unlikely to happen anytime soon), or come up with a better way to cross-check its code. It's sad—and ironic—that the largest software maker in the world is getting caught stealing code, especially with all its antipiracy initiatives around the world.